David Furtado and Christian Porter post their fifth episode of their PGFD series:
A special webisode with the new Acting Chief of Prince Georges County Fire and EMS, Chief Marc Bashoor, as he hits the ground running by having meetings with his departments members; face-to-face; he wants to know what works and what does not work from their point of view…he does a surprise visit to Station 26…
JESSICA TATA, THE OPERATOR of the day care facility that burned on Thursday, killing four children under the age of three, has fled the country, according to the Houston Fire Department.
Tata (Houston Chronicle)
The Harris County District Attorney’s office asked for a felony warrant against her on Sunday afternoon and it was issued by a magistrate judge. But by then she had disappeared. The Houston FD Arson office says that she went to Dallas on Saturday and caught a flight from there to Amsterdam where she took another plane to Nigeria.
The HFD did not say how they knew her whereabouts, but it is known that her parents were born there. Reportedly the HFD has asked the U. S. Marshal office to intervene and have her extradited back to Texas.
KTRK-TV has this late-breaking video report that attempts to define the tortuous process that the arson squad went through to get the warrant while she was “going on the lamb”:
KHOU-TV has another video and more details on this latest twist HERE.
The arson office also said that Tata left the house to go shopping and left a burner on that had a pot of cooking oil on it. It is believed to be the cause of the fire. The woman’s family is protesting and saying that she never left the house, but the investigators have a surveillance tape from a grocery store showing her buying groceries at that time. The also found groceries in her car and on the ground by the door where she was suprised by the smoke.
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UPDATE
Terri Langford provides more details inInvestigation into day care deaths criticized in the March 1st Houston Chronicle (HERE)
(2 witnesses and videotape of Tata at the store before the fire)
But the DA’s office told HFD that only proved that Tata was not at home. Investigators were told on Friday to contact the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to make sure Tata was the sole proprietor and did not have any other staff who could have been in the house at the time.
When they did and returned Friday afternoon, they were told again by the DA’s office that they didn’t have enough evidence.
Then HFD informed prosecutors they had a tip Tata was preparing to leave the United States.
Arson investigators went back and conducted more interviews and returned on Saturday. Again they were told there was not enough proof that another adult was not in the house at the time.
The ultimate goal is to enroll every emergency first responder in the United States. Departments that are 100 percent compliant will be highlighted on the Everyone Goes Home® seatbelt site (HERE)
THE OWNER OF A LICENSED DAY CARE facility in Houston, Texas, that was the scene of a fatal fire on Thursday will be charged with a felony, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Jessica Rene Tata, 22, is charged with reckless injury to a child involving serious bodily injury. The charge could be upgraded and more charges could be filed, D. A. officials said.
Jessica Tata is evaluated by a
Houston paramedic on the scene
of Thursday’s fire. (Houston Chronicle)
“We have requested that she be held at no bond,” said Donna Hawkins, spokeswoman for the Harris County district attorney’s office.
A law enforcement source said Tata had left the children and had gone to a store when the blaze began. When she returned with a bag of groceries and opened the door, smoke poured out of the house and she began screaming for help, a witness said.
Tata was caring for seven toddlers ages 16 months to 3 years on Thursday when the fire occurred. Four of the infants died in the blaze and two more are in serious condition at a Shriner’s burn hospital.
Read the Firegeezer reports on the fire HERE and HERE.
It is not clear whether or not she has been taken into custody yet. As of this morning she still had not been arrested.
KTRK-TV Ch. 13 has the first video report on this latest development:
IN SEVERAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, INCLUDING FRANCE, the search dog teams are a function of the fire department. My own home region of Rhone has 15 search dog teams and they are tested annually at a regional meeting.
Le Progress
The dogs are raised and trained by the firefighters themselves, taking the dog as a puppy and giving them 18 months of careful training while the dog lives at the FF’s home. When they reach 2 years old they are ready to work for searches for both lost people and people who are buried under collapsed buildings or cave-ins, etc. Sometimes they are used to round up unusual animals that have escaped such as monkees, crocodiles, and one time a caribou. The Rhone region responds to about 160 calls annually for the search dog teams.
These photos were taken at this year’s mandatory exercise where they are required to show their ability to find lost people and discover trapped or buried victims.
Le Progres
“We teach them to detect the source of human scent, because we do not know who will be under the rubble,” said Captain Eric Paganon, search team advisor. In the field demonstration, before launching his dog, the trainer tries to get the maximum information about the person sought, the context of the disappearance, the excavated area. Then he approaches from up-wind so that the dog can be sent in the direction of this invisible body odor that only he can detect. When he reaches his goal, he sits and barks.
ALLEN PARK, MICHIGAN, THE GROSSLY-MISMANAGED CITY that voted to shut down the entire fire department last week (see the Firegeezer reports HERE and HERE) has created new headlines over the weeken. The City Council called an emergency session yesterday (Sunday) and unanimously voted to accept the City Administrator Eric Waidelich’s sudden resignation.
Eric Waidelich
“During these tough financial times, and with the challenges that the City faces ahead, I do not want my presence to inhibit the undivided attention that these issues require and deserve of its elected officials,” Waidelich wrote in his resignation letter to city council dated Saturday.
The entire city council was unhappy with Waidelich’s performance, but that doesn’t say that the council has been doing such a hot job either. He apparently had differing ideas on how the severe budget crisis should be handled. He was also acting as the chief negotiator between the city and the firefighters’ Local.
WXYZ-TV Ch. 7 ran this video report on the late-night news Sunday:
Scuttlebutt coming out of City Hall says that Allen Park is trying to work out a deal with the city of Taylor to share fire and EMS services. Part of the deal supposedly includes keeping some or all of the firefighters employed.
Firegeezer adds: Don’t go away, folks. This story has a long way to go yet.
* The biggest news from the blogosphere is the announcement from Medic 999, Mark Glencorse is withdrawing from blogging altogether. He is planning a complete career change that will take him away from the emergency medical field. CLICK HERE to read his explanation and farewell statement. We all thank him for his invaluable contributions to the blogosphere in the past and wish him the best of luck in his new venture.
* FireTruckBlog has an enlightening discussion on why and how much you need to have an emergency repair fund for you apparatus. There are also some good tips on the weekly tests (that you should be doing) HERE.
* Dave Statter has just published the latest chapter in that hilarious video soap opera about a fictional fire department in New Hampshire on STATter911 HERE. Paul just returned to duty, except now he’s called “Paula.” Effingwoods will never be the same. (he has links to the earlier episodes if you’re late coming in.)
* Firefighter Blog, the original, explains why CalFire may suddenly grow while other FD’s are shrinking HERE.
* FirefightersWorstEnemy has posted three jewels of video, some 50-yr.-old training films on operating fire pumps. Make sure you have the time and a fresh pot of coffee to relax and enjoy THESE.
* Over at Report on Conditions, Capt. Joe Schmoe has a dramatic conclusion to a trial that he had testified in HERE.
Today is of special interest to the hockey fans because the trading deadline is at 3 pm Eastern time today. The season is 3/4 over and the teams each have about 20 games left to play. You can break them down into three groups: The ones at the top and the middle of the standings and will be playing hard to stay there; the group that are just barely high enough to make the playoffs (if they were to start today) competing against some teams that are close enough to displace them if they can just win enough of their remaining games; and the batch at the bottom that have no chance of making this year’s playoffs.
For the casual observer, there are 15 teams in each of the two divisions, East and West. Only the top eight teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. Getting into the playoffs is important not only for the prestige of the players and allowing them to compete for the Stanley Cup (the championship trophy), but making the playoffs also determines if a team shows a profit or loss for the year. So there is a lot of pressure from all directions on the teams for the next five weeks.
It used to be that there was a lot of activity at the trading deadline, but since the inception of the salary cap that the league imposed on itself, some teams are prevented from doing too much juggling of the rosters because they are limited to how much they can spend. There has already been a fair amount of activity in the past week and I expect some more as last night’s deals get approved by the league and announced today. So let’s take a look at who might still be in the market. The standings shown here are current this morning and include yesterday’s games.
In the East, the top four teams have been playing well all season and will be holding their position, unless one of them goes into some sort of losing streak, but I don’t expect that. However Pittsburgh is in a tenuous position because they have been missing their two top players for a few weeks now. Sidney Crosby would probably be leading the entire league in scoring right now, but he has been sitting out from a concussion and his return is still not projected. Their #2 player Evgeny Malkin is done for the season following knee surgery. And yet the Penquins have continued their winning ways despite the loss of the two players.
But all four teams have been active this month with trades, knowing that they have to keep getting better. Boston has been having a surprisingly good season and they’re not letting up. They won again Saturday night and have picked up six new players via the trade route in the past three weeks. Washington needs some tweaking of their lineup and the owner has publicly said that he hopes they can bring in a couple more veteran players to prop up the large squad of youngsters they have been developing. But it’s hard to swing a deal without giving up a good player, although they have enough to go around. Look for one trade today from them.
The rest of the Eastern activity has been conducted primarily by Atlanta, Florida, and Carolina. Florida is out of the playoffs and they are using the trade market to unload their payroll and make room for rebuilding next year’s team. Atlanta and Carolina are scrapping just to make the playoffs with Atlanta the most desperate right now. Buffalo is right on the edge of making the playoffs, but they have been playing well enough that they are mostly going with what they’ve got, however they did pick up a forward, Brad Boyes from St. Louis yesterday.
In the West the top three teams have pretty well got a lock on making the first round, but San Jose and Phoenix both could drop down quite a bit if they suddenly lose a few games. The real surprise of the West this year is Phoenix. They went from last year’s flop to this year’s top and Dave Tippett will probably earn this year’s Coach of the Year award. The team that really can’t afford a 3-game losing streak right now is Los Angeles. Take a look at how there are eight teams bunched up competing for those last four playoff spots:
This division will be a fan’s delight to watch during the next month, although I wouldn’t give Columbus very good odds to make it. I wouldn’t begin to guess how this conference will end up.
The NHL has a dynamic webpage that is tracking all the trades for the entire month of February up to and including whatever goes down today. So if you’re keen to follow what’s going on, CLICK HERE to check in through the day and watch the developments. Even though the trading stops at 3 pm, it can take an hour or two for the league to approve the trade and process it, so there will be updates up until this evening.
Now let’s process our own team and get this equipment checked out. I’m going to start more coffee and then when we get back to the day room we can watch last week’s Top Ten Plays:
Bonus special…. here are last week’s Top Ten Hits:
A SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, FIRE CAPTAIN is in the hospital today after falling off the roof of a house Saturday night while engaged in firefighting activity. Captain Gene Dibble, a 24-year member of the department, was on the roof of the burning structure performing a ventilation procedure.
Fire Captain John Burgess said Dibble fell from the roof during the course of his work, fracturing his lower lumbar spine. He was transported to UC Davis Medical Center.
“He’s in a lot of pain, but there’s no paralysis, which is good,” said Burgess. “Hopefully he will have a full recovery.”
No further information has been released yet. Other reports say that the house is vacant and has had another fire inside it recently.
A 30-YEAR-OLD MAN IN SOUTHERN CHINA has been complaining about a headache for four years, along with an unusual bad breath and breathing difficulties. Finally, the doctors in Yuxi City People’s Hospital in the Yunnan Province took an X-ray of his skull and found that there was a 4-inch long knife blade embedded in there.
The victim, Li Fuyan recounted that about that time he got into a fight with a robber and now it is believed that he had been stabbed in the neck without his realizing it and the blade broke off from the knife handle. It was a perfect placement, missing the carotid artery, windpipe and esophagus.
The operation took four hours. Surgeons said the knife blade was about a quarter of a centimetre thick and 10 centimetres long. After just missing the carotid artery, the knife sat behind Li’s throat, where it rusted and fell apart.
Xu Wen, deputy director of stomatology at the Yuxi City People’s Hospital in Yunnan, said that surgeons had checked Li’s mouth for wounds or scars without finding anything. Li said that, as time passed, he had resorted to using injections to kill the pain in his head.
Neurosurgeon Luo Zhiwei of the People’s Hospital said that the knife’s story was a miracle of miracles. He said that the blade entered Li’s skull through the lower right jaw, passed the tongue, and came to rest with its tip almost touching Li’s brain.
This raw video from RT News has more views of the knife and a statement from Li that his headaches are gone now:
THE OCCUPANTS OF SEVERAL APARTMENTS on the sixth floor of an apartment building in the old town of Tropea, Italy, had to be rescued by firefighters after they were trapped on a balcony.
The aparment immediately below broke out in flames Friday afternoon and the stairway filled with smoke, preventing people on the upper floors to evacuate. A tower ladder was used to remove eight residents from the balcony while the firefighters were inside putting out the blaze.
Amateur videos of the fire operation was posted on YouTube:
The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined yet. Five FF’s were treated for smoke inhalation and one has been hospitalized.
THE PEYTON, COLORADO, FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT made international news two weeks ago when nearly 80% of the VFD’s members abruptly quit after a lengthy list of official complaints against their fire chief went ignored by the fire district’s board of directors. The chief, who is the only paid FF on the department, was accused of a variety of dangerous acts on fire calls and instances of patient abandonment at medical emergencies. Firegeezer posted the entire list of grievences on our intial report HERE.
Most of the members resigned abruptly when
the Board of Directors refused to take action.
Following the sudden reduction of force, a structure fire graphically demonstrated the folly of waiting for mutual aid departments to respond and put out fires. After that along with an incident where a distant FD had to cover a medical emergency, the beleagured chief Jack Rouer commented, “I think it’s working out very well. We can still support this district without any problem.”
A few days after that, a group of citizens began a recall petition to remove the fire directors who had ignored the problems and blindly supported the fire chief. (See the subsequent Firegeezer story HERE.) That must have hit close to home, for it got their attention.
On Friday night (February25) the Board of Directors voted to remove the fire chief by eliminating the paid position and returning to relying on a volunteer chief to run the department. The Colorado Springs Gazette is reporting:
The action to dissolve the $42,000-a-year position will take effect June 1, or upon Rauer’s departure, should he resign earlier. Peyton had a volunteer chief as recently as two years ago, when it decided to offer a salary and hired Rauer to fill the job.
(Board president Leon) Gomes called the board’s vote a “strategic, financial decision.”
“The other action that we took was to schedule a meeting with the firefighters who resigned on or after Feb. 8, and the current firefighters, to talk about the future of the fire protection district and their place in it,” Gomes said. Any volunteers who wish to return will be welcomed back, he added.
KRDO-TV Ch. 13 filed this video report on this latest chapter from Peyton:
In the past we have gladly covered auctions that included fire memorabilia and naturally, these will be moved into this category. I have observed from casual comments and discussions that there are a lot of people who like to save these sorts of things, in some cases they might only keep 2 or 3 favorite mementos. But it all counts here. And this column will rely on your contributions, so please don’t hesitate to send in your news items, requests, or items that you are willing to trade. And your suggestions on what to do with this feature are most important right now, so let’s get started. What have you got? Whadda ya’ want?
The other thing that we have to get started on is this morning’s equipment check. And I need to get some more coffee going. I’ll check on the Sunday breakfast while I’m there, too.
A NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, AREA-WIDE drug dealer roundup on Wednesday night and Thursday captured 11 people, most of them dealers and a St. Bernard Parish firefighter who called in his order while the police were searching a house. The sheriff’s deputies were conducting a search through one of the dealers’ house when Lucas Chizzonite, 26, called on the phone and ordered $50 worth of heroin. The deputy obligingly took the order and told him to come right over.
St. Bernard Parish Sheriff photo
Lucas Chizzonite
Chizzonite showed up wearing a Parish fire department uniform and was arrested. A later search of his house turned up more drugs and drug paraphernalia along with Chizzonite’s girlfriend. She was also charged for possession of heroin, marijuana and paraphernalia. Chizzonite was in training and had not yet been assigned to a station, according to St. Bernard Fire Chief Thomas Stone, who declined to speak further on Chizzonite or his arrest.
Chizzonite also resigned from the fire department that same day. He is being held in the parish jail on $25,000 bond.
Read the details of the entire operation on WWL-TV website HERE, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune HERE.
ONE MORE INFANT DIED THIS MORNING (Saturday) from burns and other injuries suffered in the tragic fire Thursday in a Houston, Texas, day care center. (See the Firegeezer report on the fire HERE.)
As the arson investigators continue their work, more facts are coming to light, although they haven’t been officially declared by the fire marshal office. The facility which has been in operation for just 11 months apparently had no employees other than the woman who runs it. She is required to be in the facility at all times while the children are there. But there have been two separate statements from neighbors who said that they saw the owner, Jessica Tata arrive in her car carrying groceries and when she got out she began screaming about a fire.
The investigators have not been able to interview her yet because she has been hospitalized for shock.
The press was given a brief tour inside the house yesterday and KTRK-TV posted this video report last night before the latest victim passed away:
THE IOWA STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES has declared that today, February 26 is Bacon Day in honor of “nature’s perfect food.”
As a public service, Firegeezer is reprinting the House resolution in its entirety:
House Resolution 15
A Resolution recognizing February 26, 2011, as Iowa Bacon Day.
WHEREAS, the people of Maine have lobster, the people of Idaho grow great potatoes, and the folks of Texas make great chili, we Iowans have bacon —— nature’s perfect food; and
WHEREAS, whether plain or apple-wood smoked, whether store-bought or artisan-made, bacon is a meat for any meal; and
WHEREAS, as America’s top pork producer, Iowa stands tall as the nation’s source of high-quality bacon; and
WHEREAS, the 4th annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival is set for Saturday, February 26, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Des Moines;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, That the House of Representatives recognizes February 26, 2011, as Iowa Bacon Day and invites all Iowans to take part in the festival and to celebrate bacon.
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I think that takes care of the “what’s for dinner?” question.
THE CAUSE OF THE MASSIVE, 5-ALARM FIRE THAT DESTROYED an entire apartment building in Brooklyn, New York, last Saturday night has been determined. The blaze that burned out the 7-story building burned for eight hours and sent at least 20 firefighters to the hospital with injuries was reported by Firegeezer HERE.
NY Daily News
The Fire Marshal made public the reason the fire started and grew so fast yesterday when the FM office said that the fire started around 6:40 pm on the fourth floor. A woman visited the man who lived in the apartment and was known locally as a “Voodoo priest.” She paid him $300 to perform a voodoo ritual designed to bring her good luck. It turns out that it was also designed to bring him some good luck because it involved the ceremony of sexual intercourse. The Associated Press continues:
A city official told the AP that the ceremony involved the man and woman having sex in a bed surrounded by candles. Those candles set fire to the linens and clothes on the floor, the FDNY said. But instead of calling 911, the man conducting the ceremony tried in vain to douse the flames with water.
Then another person in the apartment opened a window and propped open the front door to in an attempt to vent the smoke, but instead wind gusts of “shot the flames back inside, creating a blowtorch effect as winds whipped in through the open window and pushed fire out into the hallway,” according to an FDNY statement.
When the people in the apartment ran out, they left the door open, fire officials said. Flames quickly spread to the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, causing part of the roof and fourth floor to collapse, the FDNY said.
WNYW-TV Ch. 5 filed this video report on the disclosure:
A 64-year-old woman on the sixth floor perished in the fire. The cause is being listed as accidental and is not expected to lead to criminal charges.
Three of the first six arriving engine companies were working with just-reduced staffing levels. The Wall Street Journal has MORE.
This morning's Lineup will be addressed by Firehat:
The Houston Fire Department responded to a tragedy Thursday. Three kids died and three more are in critical condition following a mid-day fire in a daycare facility (See Firegeezer report HERE). The brothers and sisters who made that fire probably had a bit of a tough time sleeping that night as they went about the rest of their shift making calls, cleaning up, and taking care of other stuff that has to get done every shift.
We work in a field that can be brutal on your body and your mind. One of my pet peeves is the long-discredited notion that "real men don't talk to therapists" or their wives or parents or clergy. Bunk. That attitude is why we get a divorce, why we turn to drink or drugs, and, sometimes, why we commit suicide. In fact, the Houston Fire Department had a rash of suicides several years ago and has even implemented an aggressive suicide prevention program (though I don't know which came first or the history behind the suicide prevention program).
The courage to be safe is also about the courage to speak up and everyone going home is about more than just leaving the station at 0700 the next morning. Officers need to be watchful of their members, especially the young and brash with something to prove or the old and crusty with many years of pushing things deep down inside. All members need to watch out for their brothers and sisters who might be having a hard time with something. Most of the time the regular firehouse decompression around the kitchen table is the best antidote to a rough or lingering call. But sometimes it goes beyond that and we all have an obligation to, at the very least, avoid any sort of shaming of members who need help. No one should be afraid to talk to their brothers and sisters or to ask for more formal help. So officers, please learn about your department's Employee Assistance Program (or start one up) and be sure you're familiar with the resources available to you and your members. And let's all take a stand against fear.
…….. Thank you, Patrick S. Mahoney
Firegeezer would like to add that one of the most difficult things is identifying the symptoms within yourself, and taking them seriously enough to see if you are being affected by not only one incident, but by a building-up of emotional challenges that tend to sit in your sub-conscious and accumulate over time. You might not have been on a traumatic call in a long time, but you could still be carrying the cumulative effects from some that happened months and years ago. For your own well-being, learn what the clues are and take them seriously.
Now let's start on the equipment check for this morning. I'll make sure that there's plenty of coffee. See you back in the day room.
View and read the Houston Suicide Prevention poster (.pdf) HERE.
Houston Fire Department website page on mental health resources HERE.
A FIRE THAT WAS DISCOVERED JUST BEFORE midnight in the center of Nantes, France, destroyed most of shopping strip mall.
photos via Ouest France
The fire brought 100 firefighters to the crime-filled neighborhood. The blaze destroyed a supermarket, a restaurant, a bar, a bakery and a City Hall Annex office.
The area is cordoned off while investigators work today to try and determine the cause of the suspicious fire.
A DORR, MICHIGAN, FAMILY IS SLEEPING ELSEWHERE since Wednesday after the homeowner’s son tried to thaw out a frozen water pipe with a torch. Unexpectedly, he set the wall on fire while he was engaged in the effort, but instead of trying to put it out, he ran away. That’s most likely because the lad knew that his father’s cache of professional fireworks stored in the basement was unforgiving once they caught on fire.
He managed to get away from the house before the almighty boom roused the neighborhood and blew the side wall out of the house, starting a rapidly-spreading fire.
WXMI-TV
Dorr Township Fire Department had over 20 firefighters dispatched to the scene around 9:30 am and they had the fire under control in 90 minutes. WXMI-TV Ch. 17 interviewed some of the neighbors who described in this video report what it was like when the initial explosion detonated:
Dorr Township fire quickly arrived on the scene. Soon after, Wayland Fire was dispatched to assist. “We still had explosions going off when the first teams got here,” said Harold Schumaker, who is the Dorr Township Fire Chief. ”We basically got here and kept everybody back until we had enough people to protect them.”
Firefighters could not enter the house while a continuous
series of explosions were taking place. (Grand Rapids Press)
The home owner, who was at work at the time of the explosion, believes the incident was caused when his son tried to thaw a frozen pipe with a blow torch. “He [home owner's son] went into the garage and got a torch and heated the pipe up outside, not realizing that the pipe was going into the house and he was heating the wall up,” said home owner, Mike Winger. “The wall caught on fire inside and that’s where the fire started.”
Michigan State Police Bomb Squad was called in from Lansing to confiscate the remaining fireworks from the home. The fire marshal and ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) was also called to the scene to investigate the home owner’s explosives.
“It’s believed they’re illegal fireworks,” said Trooper Thomas Coles of the Michigan State Police Wayland Post. “They’re basically mortar shells that shoot out of a mortar tube.”
Trooper Coles added that Mr. Winger does have a criminal history in possession fireworks in the past.
State Auditor Tipped Off by Fire District Treasurer
MISSOURI GOVERNOR JAY NIXON ORDERED AN AUDIT to be conducted of the Monarch Fire Protection District, an area just west of St. Louis. His action on Thursday stemmed from a request by State Auditor Thomas Schweich who had been contacted by Monarch’s treasurer, Kim Evans.
Schweich has offered no explanation of what the problem is, other than to say that the allegations are “pretty serious.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch continues:
“I had some very great concerns over what I was seeing in our board meetings and certain votes that were being taken,” Evans said Thursday in a telephone interview. “I started really examining all of the records and the checks we were paying, and it came to a point where as a board member, I felt I had a responsibility to the taxpayers and I needed to do something.
“I truly believe that there was ongoing fraudulent and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars, and that is essentially what I wrote to the governor.” Evans is one of three board members.
Board president Rick Gans said Thursday that the timing of the request for an audit was suspect, in that he is up for election April 5. Gans and board member Robin Harris have a strained, at times combative, relationship with Monarch’s union firefighters, while Evans has the backing of the union.
“This is clearly a thinly veiled effort by the public employees firefighters union to use the state auditor in his office for political gain,” Gans said. “Nothing more than a political ploy.”
Evans says that Gans’ conflict with the union has nothing to do with her report and she points out that her concerns and actions predate the election activities by many months.
Monarch F.P.D. website photo
It turns out that Monarch has a long-running conflict with the firefighters and there have been several legal actions that have cost the fire district more than $250,000 in just the past year alone and a half-million dollars in 2009.
Read the complete story in the Post-DispatchHERE.
Monarch Fire Protection District WEBSITE.
MIAMI, FLORIDA’s HIGHEST-RANKING FEMALE FIREFIGHTER was charged by a Federal grand jury, along with three others, for participating in an $11 million mortgage-fraud scheme in 2006.
Aldura Arthur, 45, is an Assistant Chief in the department and earns $184,000 a year. The incitment charges that she and the others allowed their names to be used as “straw man” purchasers of six luxury condominium units. The plot also permitted their credit histories to be used in securing the loans and in exchange they were paid an undisclosed sum of money.
If convicted on the two charges of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, she faces the possibility of 40 years imprisonment. While she has not (yet) been suspended from duty in the MFD, she has not been at her workplace since the indictments were handed down. “Our stance is this is a personal matter that has nothing to do with her role as a fire chief,” fire department spokesman Ignatius Carroll told the Miami Herald. “So right now she has to report to work. She’s innocent until proven guilty. Everything is based on what the charges are, then we determine what course of action to take.”
Arthur was arraigned Thursday and is currently free after posting a $125,000 bond.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinal has more details HERE.
Wow, this week zipped by…. here it is Friday already. But at least the winter weather is losing its grip and starting to slide away. Before you know it, the St. Patrick’s Day parades will be starting up and kicking off the Spring frolics.
Fireball pointed out to me that yesterday was the 1-year anniversary for the online magazine Urban Firefighter. The ambitious project of Ray McCormack and Erich Roden has set a new level of online publishing quality by presenting thorough and professionally designed articles that are unmatched in their value to firefighters.
They are sticking to what works, too, by not rushing the presentation and relying on quality over frequency to deliver a good product. Refining a magazine-type publication is no easy task and I admire their ability to present a top-notch e-mag right off the bat like that.
Our congratulations to all the first-alarm crew at the Urban Firefighter for making it past the toughest year, the first one.
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One of the most-widely read articles we have posted recently was the story two days ago (HERE) on the dunderheads who run the city council of Allen Park, Michigan, deciding to lay off the entire fire department because the council couldn’t operate the city within its means. Underlying their problem was the decision to sell $25 million in muni bonds in the hope of landing a motion picture production company. Their hopes were shattered when the deal never materialized and the city was left holding the bill for paying off the bond along with the interest that accrues every year.
While they tried to snooker the citizens into thinking that closing the fire department was an immediately necessary action, nobody fell for the line. And the truth has come out since then with the city manager telling the press that the council voted to issue the layoff notices on the advice of the lawyer that handles the city’s union negotiations, in an effort to win concessions from firefighters. So there you have it, admitting that the reason they suddenly thrust the families of all their firefighters into convulsions of worry, and maybe worse, and riling up the citizens into fearing that house fires will just be left to burn in order to violate a legal contract. The Allen Park city council makes the infamous “gang that can’t shoot straight” look like geniuses.
Not only are they creating turmoil in their town by pulling this stunt without telling their voters what’s going on, they then make a public statement that it’s a gimmick to break a contract. That one statement alone is enough to get a judge’s order to stay the action. A contract is a contract and you can’t arbitrarily decide to not honor it. The blabby city manager also said that the city “has talked to other municipalities theoretically about how to share some city services,” hinting that they have arranged for somebody else to run fire and medical calls in their town. But the fire chief said in an interview that he has called around to all the neighboring fire chiefs and none of them have had any contacts with anyone from Allen Park about setting up coverage. What a mess they have made.
We’d better avoid making a mess here and get this equipment checked out. I’ll get the coffee started.
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